journal article·2025-05

Atomic Cluster Outperforms Single Atom in Hydrogen Evolution and Hydrazine Oxidation for Energy‐Efficient Water Splitting

Chunhua Liu, Shuwen Wu, Yang Yang, Jinshan Wei, Shujing Chen, Xiao‐Qing Sun, Shuiping Luo, Muhammad Bilal Hussain, Renfei Feng, Xian‐Zhu Fu, Shao‐Qing Liu, Jing‐Li Luo

Advanced Functional Materials· Volume 35· Issue 19
Publisher page

Abstract

Abstract The hydrazine‐assisted water splitting (HzAWS) is promising for energy‐saving hydrogen production. However, developing efficient bifunctional catalysts that exert hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and hydrazine oxidation reaction (HzOR) at industrial‐grade current densities remains challenging. Here, Ru C ‐NiCoP catalyst, ruthenium clusters (Ru C ) immobilized onto NiCoP, is developed to elucidate the superior performance of Ru C in enhancing bifunctional electrocatalytic activity over ruthenium single atoms (Ru SA ). The Ru C ‐NiCoP achieves current densities of 10 and 100 mA cm −2 for HER and HzOR with working potentials of −10 and −89 mV, respectively, outperforming Ru SA ‐NiCoP (−16 and −65 mV). During HzAWS, a cell voltage reduction of 1.77 V at 300 mA cm −2 is observed compared to overall water splitting. Density functional theory calculations reveal that Ru C improves the adsorption energy for H 2 O and N 2 H 4 , optimizes the H* intermediate desorption, and reduces the dehydrogenation barrier from *N 2 H 3 to *N 2 H 2 . Additionally, the direct hydrazine fuel cell with a Ru C ‐NiCoP anode delivers an impressive power density of 226 mW cm −2 and enables a self‐powered hydrogen production system, achieving an unprecedented hydrogen production rate of 4.9 mmol cm −2 h −1 . This work offers a new perspective on developing efficient sub‐nanoscale bifunctional electrocatalysts and advancing practical energy‐saving hydrogen production techniques.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline

Research context

OpenAlex topics: Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion · Advanced Photocatalysis Techniques · Advanced battery technologies research

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Energy Electrocatalytic Materials Guangdong Research Center for Interfacial Engineering of Functional Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering Shenzhen University Shenzhen Guangdong 518055 P. R. China

College of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering Shenzhen University Shenzhen Guangdong 518060 P. R. China

Department of Materials Science and Engineering University of Toronto 184 College Street Toronto Ontario M5S 3E4 Canada

Canadian Light Source Inc 44 Innovation Blvd Saskatoon Saskatchewan S7N 0×4 Canada

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China · Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Program

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